Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) will host more than 40 New Zealand travel agents on a tour of Queensland in August as part of the third instalment of the ‘Tri-State Walkabout’ tourism trade event.

Premier Campbell Newman, who is currently in New Zealand on a trade mission, said the Tri-State Walkabout consisted of a two-day training workshop in Melbourne from 20-21 August with pre and post-tours taking place across Queensland.

“The Tri-State Walkabout is coordinated by TEQ, Destination New South Wales and Tourism Victoria, and is a key training event for New Zealand retail, wholesale and corporate agents to attend, learn about and experience Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria,” Mr Newman said.

“The event gives us the chance to give these trade partners a firsthand taste of Queensland’s premier tourism products and experiences.

“Around 100 travel agents will converge on Australia for the training workshop and will have the chance to experience more than 90 Australian tourism products, including 45 from Queensland.

“The pre and post-workshop tours will see more than 40 of these travel agents visit Queensland’s Southern Great Barrier Reef, Outback, Sunshine Coast, Tropical North and the Gold Coast.”

Mr Newman said New Zealand remained Queensland’s largest international market and, through TEQ, the State Government had undertaken marketing and trade initiatives in the country during the past 12 months to lure more Kiwis to the State.

“Queensland is New Zealand’s favourite Australian holiday destination with the State welcoming 409,000 Kiwis who spent $520 million on their trips to the State in the year to March 2013,” he said.

“From October, Emirates will begin their first regular A380 service on its Auckland-Brisbane route which will increase seat capacity by 38 per cent, allowing up to 49,000 extra New Zealand visitors to travel to the State each year.

“Extensive TEQ marketing activity undertaken in partnership with Emirates earlier this year delivered a 20 per cent increase in sales for the airline compared to the same period last year.

“June marked the start of the second season of Air New Zealand’s Auckland-Sunshine Coast flights, offering an extra 3,000 seats for New Zealanders travelling to the region.

“To support these services, TEQ has worked with the airline and industry partners to promote the flights and Sunshine Coast holiday packages through print, television and online avenues such as Yahoo!’.”

Mr Newman said TEQ had also signed a three-year cooperative marketing agreement with Qantas earlier in the month.

“A key focus of the new agreement will be to promote Queensland holiday experiences in New Zealand.

“The Government is opening the State to tourism and by continuing to work with industry, tourists and operators we will re-establish Queensland as a great State with great opportunities.”